Bundle Up
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Laxus is very excited to introduce his daughter to snow for the first time. Too bad she's not cooperating very well... - One-shot, set in Last Month series, Miraxus Week Bonus Day: Warmth.


"Ooh, dragon, it's so exciting. Isn't it?"

"No," came the grumble over the lacrima. "It isn't."

"Yes, it is! It's going to snow! For the first time in the season! And-"

"Why are you yelling?"

"I dunno," Mirajane giggled as she smiled brightly at her husband, bouncing a bit on the bed. This made the lacrima shake and forced her to reach out and hold it steady. "I'm just excited."

"Over snow?"

"Dragon, don't you get it?"

"Get what?" he grumbled. "I'm on my way home and we're about to have a damn blizzard. I need to get back to you guys before it comes, but it's super cold and-"

"This will be Lana's first winter!" Mira was tired of hearing his complaints. "Isn't that exciting?"

"Mira, she's seventeen months old; she was live last year during winter."

"Yeah, but she was too young to remember it."

"She's too young to remember this."

"Experience it then. Gosh, Laxus, tell me you're not excited too."

Oh, he was. Very. He wanted to be home for Lana's first snowfall. He envisioned it, even. He'd dress her in that little winter coat that her Aunt Ever bought for her a few weeks ago in preparation for this and those cute little mittens and that knit hat and her little baby boots and he'd be holding her, in his arms, but not in as bundled up as her because he was, you know, a super being to Lana, and snow would be drifting down in tiny flakes and Lana would ask what it was and he'd explain it.

Because he knew everything.

Like any good Daddy Dragon.

And he was the best Daddy Dragon.

The problem was, however, if the snow accumulated too fast, he might get trapped out of the city, in some other shitty one, away from his wife and daughter and he'd miss it. Miss his opportunity. To introduce his baby to snow.

Of course, after another year, Lana would forget again, no doubt, when she was two, what snow was all about and he could try again, but it wouldn't be the same. He definitely wanted to be there then to do it as well, but then, he wanted to be around for all of Lana's big moments.

As someone who never thought about having a child, since the first time he held his newborn, he'd known that she was the only thing that would matter from that point forth.

Nearly two years out and they were still super close.

Err, well, mostly.

Lana had her _days_ where she did not enjoy her father's constantly attentiveness and rather preferred her mother's love.

Which was fine.

Not hurtful at all.

Nope.

...Anyways, Mira was right. Laxus was looking forward to getting home and having some fun in the snow with his daughter. He knew a lot of people who found joy in traveling and getting away from the stresses of home life and, while Laxus got that and some days did desire just a bit of adult time, Lana was, honestly, his favorite person to be around.

She was his best friend.

He only grunted though, at Mira, through the lacrima, and grumbled out that he'd be home soon. Then he gave her some tips about wrapping pipes and gathering firewood and all that stuff. As if Mirajane hadn't owned a house the majority of her life.

Sometimes his obsessiveness got on her nerves.

Not to mention, he knew that he didn't need to tell her these things anyways. Not because he trusted her to remember on her own (ha), but because he'd already instructed Freed to prep his house with food and wood and anything else Mirajane might need. It was his job, after all, to make sure she was alright while he was gone.

Or at least entertained.

He did, however, get in contact with Bickslow and Lisanna following that, to be sure they were caught up on their rent and wouldn't be evicted during the snowfall. And, begrudgingly, offer up his house to them, should they be.

"Uh, no, boss, I think we'll be too busy, uh, keepin' warm, yeah to-"

"Bickslow!"

Ugh. Laxus didn't even give them a response. Just shut off the lacrima.

Annoying.

Some sort of luck was on Laxus' side, however, as the snowfall began just as he arrived in Magnolia. It was colder than the arctic but he was there.

"Mirajane, you better not have her already out looking at the snow," he grumbled to himself as he trudged along in the cold air of midday. "Because you know that I wanna be the first one to do that."

And she did.

When Autumn arrived, he'd shared this with her.

Arriving home, he was glad to find Lana happily playing with some toys in the living room as her mother sat close by, with her true loves, the mutts, attempting once more to get them understand what the word sit meant.

It seemed to be going as well as this training had for the past, oh, year and a half.

"Ooh, dragon," Mira giggled after he greeted both his woman and his children (because fine, the mutts were his too, whatever). "Are you ready to go let Lana see the snow falling?"

"No," he grumbled as he snuggled his baby to him. "We've got to do it tomorrow morning. When the snow has accumulated some."

"But why?" his wife asked. "I mean, we'll definitely do that too, but why not show her it falling now and-"

"Because, Mira."

"Because why?"

Because it wasn't the way he'd always envisioned it. In his mind, the sun was just coming up and Lana was a bit sleepy, but definitely ready to be introduced to the new experience. Snow would be falling, just ever so slightly, landing in their hair and Laxus would shake his, to get her to laugh, and she would enjoy watching it before he'd gingerly set her on her feet, where they'd begin to explore the fresh snowy terrain together.

He didn't tell Mira this though. Instead, he only grumbled something that made his toddler giggle before he headed off upstairs with her. He needed a nap and, therefore, so did she.

The snow came down the whole day and, while Mira and her dogs went out and enjoyed it, Laxus and Lana spent the evening inside. He let her sip on some cooled off coco, fed her some marshmallows, read her stories about winter time, and, of course, dressed her in her snuggliest set of jammies before bed.

He'd just gotten home from a job so, of course, she had to sleep in her own bed because, you know, he and Mira were...well…

Well.

Raijin, their biggest dog, woke Laxus up at three in the morning to go to the bathroom and, though he did it through some complaints, he sure glad he was, as he was able to see just how much snow had gathered.

"Wow," he whispered as he stood at the backdoor, watching Raijin, his golden dog, dart around the clean layer of snow covering the ground, mucking it up. That was fine as, with the high amount of snow still falling, it would be fresh for Lana again in the true morning. He'd stopped being impressed with snow when he turned about six, but that night, for some reason, he felt a bit antsy about getting to play in it when the sun finally rose.

Which is why Laxus was so disappointed when, after getting Lana up in the morning and dressing her in her little coat and mittens and cap and boots, that the little girl did not, as it turned out, like snow.

At all.

Now, Lana had noticed the air becoming more frigid, of course, but thought not much of it. The world was a strange place. She knew not much of it other than that her mother and father took care of her, her gramps loved spoiling her, and, of course, her aunts and uncles were all bonkers.

Honest.

All she knew.

But when Laxus took her out that morning, in the backyard that was oddly covered in some sort of white powder that Raijin and Tenjin, the dogs, enjoyed rushing around in, she found out just what that cool air brought.

Hell.

The cold brought Hell.

"Lana," Laxus complained as, after trying to set her down in the snow (there was none falling at the moment, so he hope for shaking his hair to get her laugh was gone, but that was fine; he could adapt). "What-"

"Oh, sweetheart," Mira giggled as she stomped her feet, not enjoying at all the crunch of the snow and the cool air all around. Worst of all was when her daddy, thinking she just needed a trial by fire, gathered up some snow in his hands and tried to gently smudge some of if against her cheek.

It was so cold!

"Da-ee!" She held her hands up in the air, whining. "Da-ee!"

"Lana, calm down. It's just-"

"Mama! Mama!"

"Come here," Mirajane giggled, coming over to gently brush a hand against her cheek as they stood in their backyard. "You're alright. It's just snow. Sweetie-"

"Da-ee!"

"I got you." Finally, Laxus just lifted her up into his arms, the girl immediately snuggling up against his chest. New things weren't always a deterrent to her, but apparently, this one was. "What's a matter?"

It was too cold!

All of it.

She wanted to go back inside, somewhere warm, away from all the frost and freeze.

The dogs were upset then, by their little sister's cries, and took to barking and trying to knock Laxus over, so that they could get to her and fix her (he was clearly doing a crummy job), which only pissed their father off and, with a growl, Laxus headed back inside.

Even inside though, Lana wasn't content. At all. Laxus thought perhaps her outside gear was bothering her, as she didn't rather like her raincoat or other jackets at times as she found them bothersome. So he took her to the living room and pulled off her boots and mittens and cap and little coat that was so cute, leaving her in her pants and t-shirt.

"There. Are you better now?"

No! Did she look better?

"Maybe she's cold, dragon." Mirajane was coming inside as well. Which was for the best, as he was a bit frazzled then. He'd had a whole big dream scenario built up in his head and Lana just destroyed it.

"Cold?" he grumbled. "How could she be cold? She was bundled up in her coat and mittens and cap and boots-"

"I don't know. It was just a suggestion."

Making a face down at his daughter, Laxus lifted her up again from the couch, where she was still being more than a bit of a crybaby (which she was at times; admittedly, the way he was acting at the moment, overly concerned with her tears, was a major contributing factor to this, but he didn't care) before taking her over to the closet with her.

"Cold, huh?" Of course, he pulled right out his big fluffy coat. "We'll fix that."

He'd taken it, of course, on his job with him so it was a bit funky, honestly, but when he went to sit down on the living room floor and wrap it up around both he and his daughter, while her cries didn't end instantly, they slowly died off before she was just snuggling up to him.

"You want Mommy to start a fire?" the man's wife giggled as their seventeen month old only snuggled up to her father, ignoring all else.

She never wanted to go out into the snow again! Never ever! She just wanted to sit there, in Laxus' lap, snuggled up to his chest, in front of the fire her mother got going for them, as their dogs sat beside them and Mirajane played her guitar, after she got it.

Where she was warm. And comfortable.

Safe.

...Until later in the day, after lunch, when Uncle Bickslow and Aunt Lisanna came by, informing Laxus that they had been kicked out of their apartment for causing a fire (don't know how that cigarette caught the carpet on fire, boss), Uncle Elf and Aunt Ever came by, saying that their furnace was messed up and, if Laxus couldn't help them fix it (which no way could he nor was he going to try, right before a damn blizzard rolled in) then maybe they could stay with him, and eventually Laxus just got on the lacrima and invited Freed over (he'd get jealous if he didn't), Lana learned that snow was actually pretty great.

Namely, before the big snowfall rolled in that night, Mira and Lisanna wanted to make snow angles and Bickslow wanted an igloo and Ever was pretty intent on Freed and Elfman helping her make a beautiful snowman and bleh.

Laxus was bundled up inside, pouting over Lana not enjoying snow when, as they were playing with toys in the living room, she looked over and out the window, the blinds being pulled up a bit on it, to see that great amazing snowman out there and wow! What was Uncle Bickslow doing? And Mommy and Aunt Lisanna looked like they were having fun and…

"Go 'side!"

Laxus was pretty concerned with his block castle at the moment but did glance up. "What's that? Little baby demon?"

"Go 'side!" She was pointing over a the window. "Da-ee."

"There's snow out there." Laxus' eyes fell to the window then and, seeing that huge lurking snowmen (they were the scum of the earth, swear), shivered. "You don't like snow."

That's because he didn't show her how cool it was!

"Da-ee!"

"Lana, little tiny baby dragon, listen to me."

Always.

"It takes me a couple of minutes to wrangle you down and get you in your heavy clothes," he said as he stared over at her. "A couple minutes I don't want to waste. So I don't want to do it if you're not going to like it out there. It is just as cold out there right now as it was before. Maybe even more! So-"

"Go 'side!"

Groaning, Laxus slowly pushed up. "You better be sure about this, Lana."

Oh, she was.

Sure, it was cold, when she finally got on her coat and mittens and cap and boots, but it was warm in another way. The others were there and playing and having a good time and it was so much fun! With all of them.

It was...warm then too.

And Laxus, who would have much rather been just playing with Lana (and Mirajane and the dogs also, sort of), was not at all pleased. Standing there with his coat, all on his own, without his baby dragon snuggled up to his chest because she was too busy being taught what a snowball was by Bickslow, Laxus was not the least bit warm.

"You know I don't like snowmen," he grumbled under his breath to Mirajane as she only giggled, dragging him to another part of the front yard to look at her snow angels. "They're pompus. Look at them. With their fake eyes. They're annoying and bothersome and that is a waste of a perfectly good carrot-"

"You don't like carrots."

"You didn't let me finish! A perfectly good carrot that I would have gladly fed to Lana."

"Oh, dragon."

He was contemplating ditching all of them and going back inside because snow was dumb and they were dumb and his dream was dead and now they were all in his house, eating his food, ruining his time with his demon and baby demon, and he just knew, somehow he just did, that he'd wake up to hear some subtle banging from Lisanna's old bedroom at some point in the night.

And something about Bickslow and Lisanna sleeping together just pissed him off.

Then it happened.

He was hit with a snowball.

Literally. Hit with it.

Lana, though she could throw at very short distances (they'd practiced) couldn't do ti very well. And, after seeing Bickslow throw one and hit Elfman in the head, she wanted to hit her daddy! So, she balled up some snow and rushed over and, honestly, kinda just fell into his legs. But her hand was held up and she definitely pressed the snow into the back of his leg, so that counted.

Huh?

"Lana," he complained. "What are you-"

She only bent down, gathered up some more snow and, again, smooshed it against his jeans again. "Play!"

"Lana, I don't wanna play." Anymore. Now that it wasn't just her and him. "I just… Stop it."

No! She gathered up some more snow and smeared it on his leg again. It was actually quite fun, she was finding out, snow was. It was still very cold, which wasn't great, but nothing to cry over.

Honestly, even without her aunts and uncles, if she would have liked the snow on the second go. She liked most things on the second go.

She was actually a pretty agreeable little girl.

So long as she'd had her nap, that is.

Mira had shifted over to igloo building duty with Bickslow and Ever and Freed were very into making sure Elfman, who'd been great at rolling the big base ball of snow, didn't ruin any of the intricate parts (he'd destroyed more than one of his girlfriend's snowmen by pushing in the branch arms too hard), leaving only Lisanna to notice when Laxus, finally, stopped scowling up at the sky, and bent down to ball up some snow with his hand and, very gently, press it against Lana's chest, smooshing the snow against the child's heavy coat.

Over the sounds of his daughter's giggles, Laxus heard it was Lisanna said, "Having fun, finally, Laxus?"

Even though he glared over at her and was very annoyed that, somehow, his home had once again been the crash pad for the impending heavy snow in the coming hours, had to admit to him that that yeah. Even though he hadn't gotten his special moments with Lana, exactly how he envisioned it, yeah, he was.

* * *

 **And, this was late, but here, so that counts for something right? Anyways, that's it for Miraxus week, I hit all the days and, somehow, managed to get all my series a piece of it as well, so that's good. Thanks for everyone who read all my stuff for Miraxus week, or just this one (though you should check out the others and all my other shit too because you just should).**

 **Probably won't update again before 2017, so thanks for everyone who enjoyed my shit during 2016 it means a lot to me that someone likes my writing. And hopefully I'll be more into it in the coming year than I have been recently. Wanna knock out Accidents and Incidents as well as Closure soon so that we can move onto other stories.**

 **I've been doing, what, once a month postings for awhile now and this was a solid eight one-shots all in a row, so I don't have to update again until, what, August? That's how that works, right? Expect an update to one of those two by August.**


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